Super Mario: The Halo of Dreams
by ML9614
Summary: The fate of dreams is at stake; the 7 Sacred Stars have been stolen and the 7 Princesses of Light were kidnapped. Using them, if the evil force activates the "Halo of Dreams", a wave of nightmares will surely engulf the Mushroom Kingdom, leaving it open to conquest. It's up to Mario to stop this scenario from happening, but can he do it before time runs out...?


_Note: This story of mine was made back in 2008 under the name "Super Mario Revelations". Originally featured on the site "Lemmy's Land", I am starting my work on the remake. Due to LL's downtime, I was unable to have the remake uploaded to that site. My alias on LL was "Mario & Luigi", just to clarify that I am indeed the original author of the story._

Prelude

_September 19, 2008_  
_6:27 PM_

It was that time again; the autumn was sweeping the Mushroom Kingdom. Leaves were beginning to lose their chlorophyll and fall off, the weather was starting to cool down, and the days were getting shorter over time. Everybody knew that winter was on its way soon. Mario stood motionless outside his pad, and felt the pleasure of having the cool autumn air rush into his body. His inner peace was further fueled by the fact that Bowser has not attacked the Mushroom Kingdom for approximately 3 months.

"This is-a truely a excellent time for the people of the Mushroom Kingdom to-a settle down, relax, and not have to worry about Bowser invading at any point," Mario pondered to himself.

The plumber then proceeded to the interior of his house and immediately noticed a note by the door. He picked it up and began to read it. The note read:

_I'm taking a stroll in the Mushroom Kingdom. If you want some pasta, follow the instructions on the piece of paper I left you._  
~Luigi

Mario placed the note in his pocket and entered the kitchen to cook up pasta, with the help of Luigi's instructions. After dinner, Mario decided to go on a stroll himself. During his stroll, he stopped at a park in Mushroom City. It was there that Mario decided to relax and enjoy the cool breeze.

"This is-a almost like a paradise now," he sighed. "No Bowser, no trouble, no kidnappings, nothing bad at all. Just a good period of-a relaxing for a hero's weary mind."

As the sun gradually fell into the horizon, Mario's mind was filled with plans to do certain activities he couldn't do before due to constant trouble. As he focused his eyes into the darkening sky, Mario took solace in his most prominent plan of all: a wedding between Peach and himself. With Peach safe and Bowser away, a wedding could now be held at the castle without any interruptions. All this remained on his mind when he returned to his house.

_At Mario's Pad..._

"Hey, Bro," Luigi called out. "Where-a have you been?"

"I was-a at Mushroom City's park area," Mario replied. "All I did there was relaxing like-a there's no tomorrow. Now that Bowser's taking some time off, I felt-a it would be nice for a hero like me to-a enjoy the peacefulness."

"That's-a interesting to know."

By that point, it was getting late and Mario was preparing to sleep on his bed. Tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day, Mario pondered to himself. But, little did he know that he was about to be proven dead wrong. In Dark Land, Bowser was in a tight situation. Since his last defeat, Bowser had attempted to come up with another diabolical plan to rule the Mushroom Kingdom. However, the number of ideas had slowly dwindled down to almost nothing, a serious side effect of his previous failures. Eventually, he isolated himself from every other resident in the castle, and whenever a minion attempted to enter his throne room, Bowser's anger always got the better of him.

"Why can't I think of another way to destroy Mario and rule his home for good?! I swear to DAD, I always come up with a plan, and no matter how hard I try, Mario still stomps my rear end! Isn't there a way to get rid of Mario and rule Peach's kingdom?!"

Bowser Jr., the tyrant's youngest child, suddenly entered the throne room.

"Yo, Papa!"

"WHAT?!" Bowser roared.

"I think I have a plan to crush Mario for good."

"You... you do?"

"Sure! Get a load of this." Jr. brings a book over to Bowser, and Bowser opens up the book. After scrolling through the pages, Bowser begins to snicker.

"Son, I am proud of you."

"Thanks, Papa!"

"Now, let's go crush Mario..."

At Mario's Pad, Mario was sound asleep in his bed. Inside his mind, he dreamed of finally getting married to Princess Peach. Mario was waiting for Peach to be escorted to the altar by Luigi. After the wait, Luigi finally made his stroll across the church with Peach. Peach was clothed a highly decorated wedding that matched greatly with her nautral beauty, which made Mario felt like his heart was stolen by her. Once the escort was finished, the priest initiated the rites.

_"Do you, Mario Mario, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, in times good and bad, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?" the priest asked._

_"I do," Mario answered._

_"And do you, Princess Peach Toadstool, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, in times good and bad, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"_

_"I do," Peach responded._

_"I now prenounce you husband and wife."_

The audience, hearing the final rites, clapped and cheered for Mario and Peach. Peach and Mario were about to deliver a kiss to each other, but before they could, the skies darkened greatly. At first, Mario assumed it was just a storm, but a massive tremor proved him wrong. He rushed outside to figure out what was happening and it was there that he noticed an ominous figure from a distance activating what appeared to be a halo. Not a great sight. Mario attempted to attack the figure, but his attacks dealt absolutely no damage at all. Despite this, he still pushed on. In return, the figure tossed a fireball at Mario, and the plumber was scorched in an instant. With ashes and burns on the majority of his skin, Mario struggled to attack the figure again, but the latter still proved resilient. In response, the figure charged up a lightning attack and proceeded to fry Mario alive. Mario felt nothing but extreme pain covering his body, and during this pain, there was one thing that scrambled through his mind...

_His dream had become a nightmare..._

Mario was forced back into reality when he woke up.

"Mamamia!" the plumber gasped. "It-a was just a dream gone wrong. But, what's-a with the halo and the mystery figure? What was-a that all about? ... Oh, well. I'll-a figure it later."

Mario decided to not worry about the dream and eat breakfast now. While eating his breakfast...

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM! SCZ...

"What the?" Mario jumped up to his feet. In a split second, he dashed out of the house to find several people in the town crying for help. Realizing this, Mario continued on to the castle. When he arrived at the castle, he was completely stunned at what happened. Much of the glass-stained paintings were either defaced or demolished, while the roof had collapsed from severe damage. In addition, holes were scattered all over the walls, and doors were yanked off from the hinges. Mario investigated the castle for Peach, hoping she's okay.

"Oh no..." Mario sighed, pushing his way through the rubble that was scattered across the stairs. At the top, the door was locked. At that point, Mario was becoming more desperate to find out Peach's status, forcing him to bring down the door through force. Inside the room, chairs were reduced to chunks of wood, parts of the floor either had holes or were cracked, and the throne was destroyed. On one of the chairs, there was a piece of pink clothing. Mario soon realized this meant one thing...

"No..." he gasped silently. "She's-a gone..."

He searched the castle for any clues as to what happened, from the first floor to the rooftop. His search was long, as his goal was to search every part of the castle without missing a single area. Even after all that, however, no clues were revealed. Desperate to find anything helpful, Mario took his search outside the castle. His search eventually led him to something unusual...

"Footprints?" Mario puffed. He noticed that the footprints were shaped like boots, almost like a Koopa's boots. Mario followed the trail until he found out that they were leading to the west exit of Toad Town.

"Hm, maybe the footprints could-a help me. I guess I should-a head to the west exit then."

He strolled on to the west exit of Toad Town. He wondered through the dark forest alone, until he encountered a Goomba.

"Hey, you! You ain't going any farther!" the Goomba barked.

Mario remained silent and pummeled the Goomba. Mario continued to travel the path to Star Sanctum, knocking out countless Goombas along the way. During his travel, Mario stumbled upon a stone of importance. On the stone were 5 symbols. Going clockwise, a woman, a sphere of light, a star, a halo, and what appeared to be a sanctum were the embedded symbols. After close examination, Mario noticed that there was a coin lying next to the stone. The coin appeared to be a clean white in color and had the same five symbols imprinted on it.

"The coin has something to do with the stone, but in what way?" Mario muttered. It was then that he noticed a small slot for a coin to fit in. After putting the coin into the slot, Mario watched the rocks ahead of him sluggishly pull away from the path. Retrieving the coin, Mario pushed on into the forest. Mario stumbled into a puzzle that consisted of a set of mirrors made to reflect the light in the dark forest into a crystal gem on the doors. When Mario attempted to reposition the mirrors, he noticed that the mirrors were locked in place. Searching for a way to handle the situation, Mario's eyes caught sight of a key inside a case.

"This should-a help," Mario pulled on the lid of the case, but to no avail. He then pulled on the hammer and tried to smash the case, but the case did not shatter or crack. On his 3rd attempt, Mario pulled out the special coin. Unexpectedly, the coin conjured a powerful beam. This beam was powerful enough to melt the case and allow Mario to obtain the key. After inserting the key into a switch panel, Mario used the switches on the panel to move or rotate the mirrors. It was difficult and long, for some of the controls were very old and didn't work well, but in the end, Mario succeeded in directing the light into the gem. The next obstecle was an icy lake of magical power. Mario tossed a vine at the lake and the vine was immediately frozen solid.

"Guess I'm-a going to have to figure out a way to get across this-a lake without freezing," Mario pondered. The plumber launched a fireball at the lake, but the fire was extinguished quickly. He then resorted to throwing a hammer, but not only did the ice proved itself to be sturdy, the hammer froze up as well. Near the edge of the lake was a Bob-omb. Mario grabbed the Bob-omb and a portion of the ice was destroyed shortly after the explosive detonated on the lake. Mario proceeded along the pathway that was revealed from the blast. When he exited the passage, he caught sight of a sanctum. This sanctum was coated in a very holy light, and had 7 stars embedded on the top of the massive doors. The pillars of the building were very wide and have not shown any signs of wear despite their age. Close to the doors were 7 pairs of lights. Each one provided a glow of a different color, be it red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, or white. Amazed, Mario continued to gawk at the amazing sight of this holy building.

"I don't-a believe it..." he whispered. "It's such a sight-catching building..."

Mario pushed the door open and noticed a stain-glass picture. This stain-glass picture depicted a magical halo as well as seven stars and 7 spheres of light around the divine artifact. Looking downward, Mario caught his eyes on a noticible circle in the center of the room. A sphere of light on the ceiling was the main source of light on the sanctum's interior. Before he examine the area any further, however, Mario suddenly noticed that the special coin was starting to glow brightly.

"What's-a going on here?" Mario mumbled. "The coin is-a reacting to something in this room." But before Mario could start his search, his eyes caught sight of a Koopa. This Koopa was rather young, still developing, and wore a light blue shirt and dark blue shorts. Two other noticible features about him were the bandage on his nose and his right eyelid, which was lowered partially all the time. Giving from these features, Mario soon recognized this Koopa.

"Koops?" Mario called. "What are-a you doing here?"

"Huh?" Koops muttered. "I was just taking a visit to the Mushroom Kingdom, then I wondered too far on one of the trails and I ended up in here."

"Well, we've just-a meet at the right time, because I-a need you for something."

"What is it?"

"Someone kidnapped Peach recently. I don't-a have a clue as to who kidnapped the princess; it could be Bowser, but I can't rule anything out-a yet."

"What do we do?"

"We needed to search this place first, then we can go after the kidnapper."

While searching the area, Mario entered the circle. The coin unexpectedly ripped itself out of Mario's grip. While levitating, a second object projected itself from the ceiling's bright light. This object was a book, decorated with a halo on the front. Around the halo were seven hearts and seven stars, each one a different color. After a few seconds, the coin inserted itself into the halo. Then, the book opened up to a map. On the map, there were many different locations including Sub-con, the Mushroom Kingdom, several castles, and an alternate dimension. A red marker placed itself on Sub-con.

"That's-a where we are going," Mario pointed to the marker. "Maybe Wart's got-a something to do with this."

"He might, but we don't want to spring to conclusions too early. Also, why are we heading to Sub-con?"

As if responding to Koops's question, the book flipped pages to another section and fell into Mario's hands.

"Let's-a see what I can get out of this book," Mario sighed. "Hmmmmm... _"The artifact known as the "Halo of Dreams" is the source of all dreams for every inhabitant on the planet. It is unknown where the Halo of Dreams came from, but since the beginning of civilization on Plit, this holy artifact controlled everyone's dreams during sleep. Upon arrival, the Halo brought with it seven objects dubbed "Sacred Stars" by the first civilizations to find them. In addition, the Halo also blessed seven women to hold the unlocking power. These women would eventually be known as the "Princesses of Heart". Seven of the early tribes of Plit hold each Princess of Heart. But then, a sudden fear struck the minds of all good people. They feared that if a person of evil intent got all the Stars and Princesses, that person would use the artifact to wreak havoc on the minds of all with nightmares. In response, the seven tribes, called the "Tribus Bénis", constructed a sanctum dubbed the "Star Sanctum" to keep the artifact hidden and scattered the Sacred Stars into different locations throughout the world. Meanwhile, the Princesses of Light went into hiding to avoid capture. It is believed that the seven women have descendents that hold the power to unlock the Halo. To this day, the Sacred Stars remain hidden and the Halo of Dreams remains locked."_"

_(Note: "Tribus Bénis" means "Blessed Tribes" in French.)_

"I guess we need to find the Princesses of Heart and the Sacred Stars before the bad guy does."

"You want to-a join my party?"

"Alright, I will."

~Koops of Petalburg has joined your party~

"Let's-a-go!"

Mario and Koops headed back to Toad Town and ordered a room at a hotel in order to sleep. Once the duo fell into a deep sleep, they were transfered to a sanctum. The sanctum was almost reminiscent to Star Sanctum, except that this sanctum had only golden lights, dark pillars, a lack of stain-glass paintings, and a hallway leading to Sub-con. It seemed like a beauty to behold, but Mario disregarded it, for he was aware that there was a nightmare afoot...

"We must-a head down this hallway," Mario ordered.

The duo proceeded to travel down the hallway. The first obstecle they encountered was a large hole in the center of the path. Mario grabbed onto the ledges of the hole to shimmy around and Koops followed suit. Afterwards, both characters caught sight of a dark pool across a huge portion of the hallway.

"What is that stuff?" Koops asked.

"I have no clue," Mario mumbled. "It-a looks dangerous, though... There must-a be something that can assist us into-a rowing across this pool."

"Would a Koopa shell be good?"

"Huh? A regular-sized Koopa shell? That's-a not going to work."

"Not that, I meant a stone replica of a giant Koopa shell." Koops pointed up to a stone representation of a giant Koopa attached to one side of the hallway. The shell seemed large enough to fit the group inside and had a hollow underside to it.

"You have a good point-a," Mario agreed as he tore the stone shell of the wall. After tossing the shell into the pool, Mario ripped the two poles that used to hold the shell in place. Using the poles as oars, the party proceeded to row across the hall.

"It looks like we're halfway across-a the hallway to Sub-con," Mario concluded after examining the hallway. Just then, a small tremor struck the hallway.

"What was that?" Koops asked, slightly nervous.

"Something's-a creating the tremor," Mario answered. "I just-a can't explain where exactly the is source at. We must tread carefully."

At the other side of the pool, Mario noticed another obstecle ahead. This time, it was a stone door with three rings in the center. Each ring had 3 symbols: a Toad, a Koopa, and a Goomba.

"With 3 rings and 3 symbols on-a each ring," Mario deducted, "There are 27 possible combinations to unlock this-a door. We just need to figure out which combination opens the door.

Mario started with Goombas on the outer 2 rings and rotated the inner ring to each symbol. No movement from the door. He tried again, this time with a Koopa in the middle ring. Things seemed a bit more promising, but still no movement from the door. After the next 3 attempts with a Toad on the middle ring, Mario moved the outer ring to a Koopa and the middle ring back to a Goomba. The next 3 attempts were hardly successful in opening the door. Mario felt impatience in him, but chose to ignore it and continued with his task. When he placed a Toad in the middle ring and a Goomba to the outer ring, the symbols flashed with such intensity that Mario felt he was nearly blinded. Soon, the doors jolted open. By that point, the tremors returned and this time, they were almost like earthquakes to the party.

"Oh boy," Koops shuttered. "This is terrible."

"We're better hurry or-"

But before Mario could continue, a large Gloomba smashed through the ceiling and slammed into the floor. Aside from the skin color, this Gloomba resembled Goomboss in many different ways. He had the same crown and the same moustache as Goomboss and even the same voice. The similarities ended there, for this Gloomba possessed red eyes, bitter green teeth, and even horns on the top. The giant Gloomba was growling in a very low tone towards Mario and Koops, his eyes showing nothing but aggression and his teeth clentching tight. Mario yanked his hammer out.

"Is that...?" Koops asked Mario.

_"GGGGLLLLLLOOOOOOMMMMMMBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSS! "_ the Gloomba, now known as Gloomboss, roared.

"We better stomp this abomination out," Mario huffed. With this, Mario tossed his hammer at Gloomboss. To Gloomboss, the hammer felt like a tickle to him. Koops launched his shell in Gloomboss's face, but the monstrous Gloomba headbutted Koops backwards. Koops collided into a pillar. Mario tossed a fireball and this time, Gloomboss flinched from the blow. Like a boxer delivering blows to a punching bag, Mario delivered burning blows to Gloomboss until Gloomboss chomped on Mario's right arm. Immediately, Mario's strength began to decline.

"How do ya like them apples?" Gloomboss mocked. "This poison is one of the most powerful in the Mushroom Kingdom! Now, say good night!"

Gloomboss tried to chomp Mario, but Mario staggered away from the sharp teeth. Koops used his shell to slam into Gloomboss and at the last moment, ignited his shell to scorch Gloomboss. Eventually, it reached Gloomboss's mind that he was on the brink of loss and to him, losing was unacceptable. For this reason, Gloomboss conjured an ice shield to protect himself from fire. Now, Koops's fire attacks dealt very little damage and Gloomboss froze Koops with a freezing headbonk. When Gloomboss turned his attention to Mario, Mario used every attack he had with him to defeat Gloomboss. None of them, not even his fireball, penetrated the shield. Goomboss tackled Mario and Mario was forced backwards into a wall.

"Is that the best you can do?" Gloomboss sneered.

Mario, now almost out of consciousness, gasped, "I may not... have much left-a... but I have this..."

He grasped onto the coin in the book and the coin enveloped him in a bright light. Mario could feel his strength injected into his body and relief filled his mind with confidence.

"What?" Gloomboss jumped back. "How do you...?"

"Let's-a finish this," Mario direct a beam of light from the coin into Gloomboss's shield. This light was overwhelmingly strong, even for the shields, and held a feeling of great radiance. There was no doubt that Gloomboss's shield would fail to withstand the strength of the light. Gloomboss headbonked Mario, only to be meet with a devastating blow to the forehead. Gloomboss was directed straight towards Koops's frozen form, shattering the ice completely. Koops immediately jumped to his feet and directed his shell towards Gloomboss. Gloomboss blew a freezing wind that froze Mario's lower body. Mario struggled to pull himself out when Gloomboss was about to trample him. Koops interrupted the attack just in time by striking Gloomboss's jaw. After breaking free, Mario ground pounded Gloomboss and delivered a suplex which shattered Gloomboss's skull completely.

"Had enough?" Mario called to Gloomboss.

"This isnt... over," Gloomboss moaned. Shortly after, he began to glow a very dark blue. Within seconds, his body changed to a pure white color. The energy around him was slowly being absorbed. The more Gloomboss absorbed, the more dangerous his body appeared. At this point, Mario realized what Gloomboss was doing.

"Get away!" he yelled. He and Koops took cover just as Gloomboss unleashed a powerful explosion of ice that swallowed almost the entire room. The party took cover behind a pillar away from Gloomboss's direction to avoid being swallowed by the ice. Once the explosion subsided, Mario and Koops removed themselves from their hiding spot.

"Now that he's-a out of the way, we should keep moving," Mario sighed.

After traveling a small distance across the hallway, the duo finally reached the door to Sub-con. This door was mainly gold in color, with a white slot in the center. To add on to these features, there was a bright red star embedded on the very top. These features gave Mario and Koops a feeling of hope, a hope that they will find the Princesses of Heart and collect the Sacred Stars before the villain succeeds in his plan.

"Alright," Mario puffed. "We must not let the Mushroom Kingdom down. Let's-a-go!" Mario inserted the book into the slot, which gave the door the power to open up. Once he retrieved the book, the duo strided into Sub-con. After Mario and Koops stepped into Sub-con, 2 unknown shadows immediately approached the door...

_End of Prelude_


End file.
